OLIVER DAVIES

I am Professor of Christian Doctrine at King's College London and one of the first to begin Transformation Theology at King's. It has been and continues to be a wonderfully exciting experience. The very nature of TT is that it is new (and so has to be thought through at every stage). There are so many different dimensions to it which have yet to be explored. It has also become clear to us over time that it represents a different kind of theological method which involves much closer collaboration between researchers and practitioners than is normally the case. I find that that is the most exciting thing of all. 'Transformation Theologians' are constantly called upon to think theologically in new ways and contexts, building new kinds of relationship. Nothing ever stays still for very long in TT!

TT is a new alliance between academics and practitioners, and between the academy and the Churches. It brings together people who have been working in theological and related fields for many years and those who are just at the beginning of their careers. What unites all of us is a sense that the world is changing, in significant ways, and that theology is also being called to change. We think that change concerns the theological return of the exaltation of Christ. We are used to believing that it is the living Christ, who commissions and calls, who is at the very heart of faith, but we are less used to basing theology, as our thinking about and in faith, on this form of his presence. As any Transformation Theologian will tell you, to do that can feel a bit of a risk and a jump. It is to allow the world into our theology. This is not the world as we understand it in secular terms, but rather the place of the birthing of New Creation, in which the Trinity is at work, shaping our social and personal realities. But by orientating our theology there, we are also allowing the creative powers of the Trinity to shape our theology and to draw it closer to life. We are allowing ourselves to become part of that reality as theologians.

There are no quick answers in TT therefore. The whole project of Transformation Theology is governed by what we call the 'where' question: where is Jesus Christ for us today? In what 'crowded spaces' does he call us to be present and act as Church but also to engage as theologians? As we like to say, this is more an 'orientation' than an answer. This also means that discernment is called for at every stage, in terms of the social context in which we work but also of the traditions and norms of the Church and of our own Church traditions. TT is a form of what John Webster calls 'generous orthodoxy'. But it is also a form of theology which takes the exalted Christ in the midst of life as its point of departure, who is the 'universal' Christ. This means that it is also an ecumenical theology: one which allows theologians from different denominations to work with integrity from within their respective traditions. But there is only one Christ, and we experience this as something which can be called 'convergent orthodoxy'. We work theologically in different contexts and traditions but do so on the basis of what is most common among us: the conviction that in the person of Jesus Christ, wounded and glorified, God the Creator continues to transform the world according to his loving power and goodness. This is something we can know most directly in life and experience rather than in thought, but it is the place where theology, as the practice of reflection in the Church, must choose to begin.

Transformation Theology is a journey therefore or a kind of theological pilgrimage. Like all pilgrimages, it is best done in company and with much discussion. Not all pilgrims travel in the same way or even take the same route. But what unites them is the journey's end.